A NORTHERN Province man and his wife have appeared in court for allegedly raping a 14-year-old girl in an attempt to “teach her to be a woman”. The man, 43, and his 42-year-old wife, who is accused of holding the teenager down during the rape, were not asked to plead in the Ritavi Magistrate’s Court and were remanded until September 28. Their names were withheld because the man is the teenager’s great-uncle. Police said the teenager was living with the couple at Mhlaba Cross village in Ritavi, near Tzaneen, when they allegedly raped her in January or February. The teenager moved out of their home after her stomach started growing and they realised she was pregnant. The girl refused to tell her parents who made her pregnant until a social worker was called in to help. She also had to drop out of primary school in the late stages of her pregnancy. – African Eye News Service